Justice Department asks appeals court to overturn judge who dismissed Capitol riot charges
The Justice Department will ask the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a judge’s decision to throw out felony charges against three Jan. 6 defendants, according to a notice filed Wednesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia filed notices of appeal Wednesday in its cases against Garrett Miller, Joseph Fischer and Edward Jacob Lang. Since March, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols has dismissed obstruction of an official proceeding charges against all three – most recently Lang earlier this month.
With the exception of members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers now facing charges of seditious conspiracy, the obstruction charge is the most serious count filed against more than 230 defendants in connection with the Capitol riot. Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced in November to 41 months in prison.
Nichols is, to date, the only judge on the D.C. District Court to dismiss the obstruction count against a Jan. 6 defendant. He first did so in March, when he granted Miller’s motion to dismiss. In his order, Nichols relied on a narrow reading of the statute — 18 USC § 1512(c)(2) — that would require a defendant to be accused of taking “some action with respect to a document, record or other object” in order to corruptly obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/justice-department-asks-appeals-court-to-overturn-judge-who-dismissed-capitol-riot-charges/ar-AAYKl0A
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